GolfHos

Just spent 20 minutes fixing the MIL's email config after she spent nine hours over two days (literally) on the phone with Charter, Norton and Microsoft trying to get it straightened out.  Trust me, we have nothing to fear from the Asian sub-continent other than perhaps their master plan to drive us all crazy one tech support call at a time.

So anyway, tell me what I should tell her to install for anti-virus, popup blockers, etc.  Free is best.  Simple is mandatory.

   Windows XP
   Home Edition
   Version 2002
   Service Pack 2

Thanks in advance.

big kaspersky  all in one    supporter here.

I see they have a free trial for 30 days.  After that, would she need buy the $79 Internet Security product AND the $59 AV product?

30 day trial free, yes.   $79 is the 1 year license free for the I.S. product which  *INCLUDES* the AV product.   it also includes a license for 3 machines-  maybe not helpful for your situation, but a good overall value.

btw, after rethinking it,   KIS can be very simple but there is  a small 'learning curve'.   i don't know if the learning curve is gonna be too 'steep' or not.   the program on 'high' security for most components and training mode for the firewall should be pretty straightforward and only really prompt her excessively the 1st day or two (teaching it what programs you really want to allow/disallow  internet conxns  as you open them)

then again,  with the free trial, you could find this out  at least at no cost.      once you get the program going though (in terms of the training, etc)  it is pretty hands off, basically only prompts you if you (or the system itself)  really do something unexpected and background allows/kills  as need be.



btw, also,  just keep in mind ANYTHING you pick aside from   norton or mccrappee  and anything goes wrong,  you'll need to be the phone support, as the ISP wont be able to help.
 

Good info.  Thanks aske.

for the sake of her sanity,  i would say if you get KIS  do not turn on  application integrity control in the proactive defense.  (or the equivalent in any other av/is  package)  LOL.  that is  high security overkill.
(basically anyime a program calls a DLL you have to authrorize each DLL)
 [sm_shock]   

Death by dialogue.  Sounds like Vista.   :P

 [sm_laughatyou]

does charter offer a free security suite? with comcast we get the whole mcafee suite for free.

Kev and I use Avast! (http://www.avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.html) for our anti-virus.  It's the best free av out there in my opinion.  It's simple to use, light on resources, updates its definitions every day.  We use Comodo (http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com/) for our firewall.  It, too, is free and very thorough.  Ad-aware (http://www.lavasoftusa.com/products/ad_aware_free.php) and Spybot (http://www.safer-networking.org/en/spybotsd/index.html) are our top 2 for spyware/malware/etc.  Of course, they're free also. ;D

Not sure but someone at Charter wanted her to sign-up for something at $7.95 per month.  Whatever it is I told her not to do it.

eset (nod32) fan here.  A former co-worker desktop guru, who's opinion I highly value, recommended it to me.  Never had a problem with it.

Thanks EAGLE.  Might be a bit too much going on there considering her comfort level.  One $$$ app is probably better than 3-4 free apps in this particular circumstance.

Yeah, it can seem like a lot.  When my best friend got her own computer, what Kev and I did for her was to set them up, then stick all the shortcuts in one folder on her desktop.  Told her to check for definition updates about once a month, and run it after she does that.  That seems to make it "simpler" and not overwhelming.  Might that help?

I don't think you would absolutely, positively need Comodo.  XP does have a firewall.  (If you're looking for simple, I don't think it's incorrect to say it's the simplest firewall out there. :D)  What many people don't like about it is that it only blocks inbound traffic and not outbound, too.  We've been fine with just the XP firewall on the desktop.  We do use Comodo on the laptop (Win2000 pro) and love it.

Spybot and Ad-aware work great as a tag-team, but you could use just one.  Both are great, neither missing but one occasional thing.

It is my opinion that, when there is quality freeware, why pay for something to basically do the same thing?  However, I do understand that it's different for each person.

Yup.  My wife requires all computer-related anything be as simple as possible.  KIS has worked flawlessly on her laptop.  (I didn't change any security levels from default.)

Yeah, who needs explorer.exe (http://www.news.com/Kaspersky-inadvertently-quarantines-Windows-Explorer/2100-1002_3-6223836.html) anyway? :o ;D

Hey, Aske does have a shift key. :o

lol ;D Can never have to many dialogs (http://farm1.static.flickr.com/45/151250154_eee4ce34e8_o.jpg). ;)

I think he just accidentally hit the Caps Lock key.

I could write him a script to disable it so he won't have to suffer through that again again then. ;) ;D

I've been saying that for 15 years. 

You can do that?

 [sm_shock]

I would say that he already has. :D

Already have, Caps Lock is mostly useless, most people only use it when they hit it on accident. ;) But it can be made more useful by remapping it so Caps Lock is only activated when pressing a different hotkey like Shift+Caps Lock, then it is still usable but not activated on accident. :) Or you can remap Caps Lock to do something useful like opening a run box when hit normally and only activating Caps Lock with Shift+Caps Lock ...